After birthday, Maya shifts focus to polls

New Delhi, Jan 16 (UNI) Through with her birthday celebrations, Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati today shifted her focus to the coming Assembly election by holding a closed-door meeting with state party chiefs and coordinators.

Ms Mayawati, who had declared on the occasion yesterday that her party would not go in for any electoral alliance, had described today's meeting as ''very important'' as the agenda was related to the coming elections.

She told party functionaries to gear up for the ''approaching battle'', and concentrate on party building in states not going to polls.

The discussions centred round prospective candidates and the strategies to be adopted at the grassroot level so that the ''party could return to power in the state on its own,'' sources said.

Ms Mayawati had observed her birthday as the 'Aarthic Sahyog Divas (Economic Cooperation Day), an occasion when party workers and functionaries from across the states make monetary contribution to the party's fund.

Among the states going to polls, the BSP has largest number of MLAs in Uttar Pradesh (67 at present and over hundred before the defections in 2003). In Uttarakhand, there are seven BSP MLAs and in Punjab none, but the party had been able to gain 12 per cent of votes.

The party has decided not to enter into any electoral alliance in any of these states.

In Uttar Pradesh, where poll dates are yet to be declared, and in Uttarakhand, the partry will contest all the seats. However, in Punjab it has not yet made it clear as how many candidates it would put up.

UNI